A Blazing Heart
by Violet Bliss
Summary: After discovering a legacy about the family she never knew she had, Bella, the last of the Swan blood line is pulled into a world of magic and revenge by a gorgeous man who claims that she is his.
1. Preface

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**This story has been haunting me for months and I'm glad to finally give it a life outside of my head.**

**Reviews are love!**

* * *

PREFACE

"I want to know why it hasn't worked yet!" the man in black screams to the elderly gypsy woman as she furiously consults the strangely shaped bones on her table, her frail hands hovering over them as she chants quietly, though the words are drowned out by his fury.

"I did everything you said, I have killed every last one of them yet their legacies evade me!" he hisses, the candle light flickering harshly over the deep scars on his face, remembrances from the battles he had endured taking out the Swan bloodline.

"I told you that you had to eliminate them _all_ in order to absorb their legacies," the gypsy woman says, opening her eyes at the enraged man, her eyes pale with blindness but the man did not doubt for a second that she could still see him.

"Which I have done, Charlie Swan was the last of them, the final heir," he says, his pupils dilating into the long slits that betrayed his human form, impatience and anger radiating from every pour of his body as it shakes with anger.

"Charlie Swan was not the last of them. There is another."


	2. One

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

* * *

The echo of a maddened roar pulls Isabella Dwyer from her dream of the gypsy woman and the scarred and furious man. She could still smell the incense that the woman had been burning and the scent of something burning that had surrounded the angry man.

She sat in her bed, leaning against the wooden headboard as she pushed back the damp hair from her sweaty forehead, her heartbeat slowing as she recovered from the nightmare. It had been the same one for days now, pulling her from sleep night after night, the circles under her eyes becoming darker with each experience.

She knew that she should tell her Aunt Maggie about them, but the woman had become increasingly paranoid since Bella's twenty-first birthday and she hated the thought of worsening her Aunt's condition over a stupid dream.

Sighing softly, she leans over to her bedside table and grabs the old leather bound journal she used to sketch in, preferring the expression of pictures rather than words and she lights the dozen candles around her bedroom with a wave of her hand, ignoring her Aunt's rule to not use her gifts.

Bella had found it more and more difficult to follow the rule as she'd grown up, her magic becoming a larger part of her as she grew from girl to woman, finding out the hard way that if she went more than a few days without using her gift that she would become increasingly agitated and restless with each day, the other side of her becoming dangerous in its frustration.

The last time she had managed four consecutive days before a window at the diner that she worked at had smashed after a group of teens eating there had insulted her and she had been very lucky that the weather had been bad enough on that day for her boss to blame the wind.

She sat until dawn, sketching both the faces of the scarred man and the gypsy woman, her blank eyes seeming to bore into Bella's as she drew the woman's likeness. As the same as each night since the first nightmare, the feeling of imminent danger continued to flood her veins and she continued to wonder what it meant.

She waited until she heard her Aunt moving around the house to emerge from her bed, leaving the warmth of her electric blanket that should not have been on this late in the year but that she could not sleep without.

She shivered uncontrollably as she pulled on socks and slippers, stepping into the kitchen where her Aunt was preparing breakfast.

"Did you sleep at all?" Maggie asks after noticing the dark circles under her grey eyes.

"I slept fine," Bella argues back, pouring herself coffee, the warm cup thawing her stiff fingers.

"The entire house shakes when you dream Bella, do not lie to me," her Aunt snaps, setting a plate of pancakes in front of her.

"It was just a bad dream, I've been having the same one for the past week," she tells Maggie quietly, soaking the short stack with syrup and biting into the fluffy sweetness.

"About what?" Bella can feel her Aunt's worry as she asks the question and winces visibly before putting her fork down.

"Some man shouting at a gypsy woman about absorbing legacies or something, it's super weird," she shrugs as she speaks, acting nonchalant when she feels apprehensive herself.

"What did the man look like Bella? Did you see his face?" her Aunt's tone worries her and she regrets bringing this up at all now, she was twenty-one and the woman still treated her like a child, she hated giving her Aunt another reason to worry.

"Aunt Maggie, it was just a dream," she smiles weakly at her Aunt but the empathy in her can feel the waves of fear her Aunt is projecting.

"Bella, I know you think I'm paranoid but I promised your mother and father I'd keep you safe."

She feels a pang of sadness hit her, so close to the surface that it only takes a mention of them to make her feel empty. She didn't remember much of Renee Dwyer and even less about her husband, including his name; she had not asked and Maggie had not told her. Her last memories of the woman who gave birth to her had been wrought with fear as her mother had frantically shoved her into a hidden passageway in the walls of their house and had told her to be completely silent, while men burst into their home and struck the woman down, demanding to know where her husband was.

She had not told them and had lost her life for it.

Bella was silent as she left her barely touched breakfast to collect her sketchbook from her bedroom before returning and showing her Aunt the page where the drawing of the man was. Maggie cried out, her face losing its colour as she looked at the picture with haunted eyes.

"What is it Maggie?" Bella asks, putting the book down and reaching for her Aunt.

"You can't go to work today," Maggie says and Bella shakes her head, knowing that they need the money.

"I have to," Bella says softly, hugging her Aunt, pushing feelings of warmth and comfort into the frail woman's body with her gift.

"It's not safe," her Aunt insists.

"Why?" Bella demands, pulling back to look at her Aunt, who had a knack for giving her rules and not a reason for their existence.

"I can't tell you."

Bella's eyes narrow and she sighs angrily before leaving the room, sick of the woman's insistence that nothing was safe. Bella hadn't even been able to have friends outside of school, her Aunt adamant that nobody outside of the two of them going to the house and it had cost her emotionally to deny the companionship that she craved.

Her job was the only escape from this house that she had and she was not going to let her Aunt take that away from her too.


	3. Two

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Please let me know what you think!**

* * *

Despite her Aunt's irrational demand, Bella showered and dressed for work, tip toeing past the kitchen where Maggie sat, panicking to someone on the phone.

She rode her bike into town, the few miles between the cottage-style house her Aunt and her resided in and the small sea-side village giving her the time she needed to clear her head. Her Aunt had to be losing her mind. Bella had been thinking about it for a while now but her behaviour now had sealed the deal, the woman had raised her selflessly since she was a child and loved her unconditionally, but she hindered her from doing _something_ with her life.

The smell of bacon and coffee welcomed her as she entered the diner, Charlotte's was renowned for their generous helpings of artery-clogging food and Bella felt less like a freak while she worked, the regulars and her co-workers greeting her by name gave her some of the social interaction she craved.

"Good morning dear," Charlotte greeted her, her grey hair styled gracefully and she prayed that when she reached seventy, she looked as good as this woman.

"Hey Char, busy morning?" she asked, putting her bag away and pulling on a red apron.

"Not especially, although a very handsome man came in about fifteen minutes ago," she says slyly and winks at Bella, forcing her to roll her eyes at the woman.

"Maybe men aren't my type," Bella teases, walking along the counter to pick up her pen and notepad, tucking them into the front of her apron.

"Isabella Dwyer!" the woman reprimands her and she laughs in return, picking up a jug of coffee and topping up the customers drinks, her Aunt's worries all but forgotten.

The regulars greet her warmly as she passes them all, exchanging pleasantries and bringing them food as they went about their daily routines.

She's always felt safe here, the warmth from the kitchen making it a comfortable place for her to work so when she feels the small hairs at the nape of her neck rise and her inner alarm begin to go off, she feels panic and turns to find an unknown man sitting in the corner of the diner, previously unnoticed, his dark eyes watching her as she moved to behind the counter to refill her jug.

"That boy has been staring at you since you walked in!" Charlotte not-so-subtly whispered to her from in front of the counter and Bella frowned.

"Something feels off about him Char," she tells her boss and walks away, ending the conversation.

By the end of the morning shift the warnings in her head have not stopped and the handsome but creepy man in the corner has not moved. Her body remained stiff with the awareness of his gaze on her and she started to feel ill.

"Are you okay sweetheart?" Char asked, noticing the usually pale face of her favourite employee was void of all colour and she looked like she was about to fall over.

"I think I need to go home, I'm not feeling well," Bella says and the woman agrees, giving her soup and telling her to be careful riding home.

* * *

She's over a mile on her way home when she feels it again – stronger this time as her alarm screams and she knows he's following her, a turn of her head confirms it and her heart rate escalates with fear for her and her Aunt.

_Why didn't I listen?_ She asks herself, directing the wind to aid her in returning home and she hears the car behind her accelerate before she feels his bumper making contact with her back wheel and she is thrown from the bike, her body colliding painfully with the road, scraping open skin on her face and arms as she rolled into the shoulder of the road, her body in a foetus position as she fights the darkness that creeps along the edges of her vision.

She hears his footsteps over the crushing pain in her head and she cringes as she feels his closeness.

"You're nothing extraordinary," he hisses, pulling her hair so that she's looking into his dark eyes and her stomach rolls with the smell of his rancid breath.

"What do you want?" she asks, confused but thinking about the men who went after her mother.

"What's your name?!" he demands his voice as angry as the man had been in her dream and she whimpered as he tightened his grip, pulling hair from her scalp with the force.

"Isabella Dwyer," she chokes out and he slaps her face with enough force to split her lip open.

"Liar!" he roars and she cries out.

"I'm not lying!" she insists, her eyes wide and his anger falters as he registers the truth in her voice and eyes.

He hits her again anyway and she sobs, the taste of blood in her mouth making her feel fainter than her head injury.

"Oh, he's going to love this," he says wickedly, his face so close to hers that when she smells his breath again, she vomits, her stomach contents finding their way to the grass next to her and she worries for her Aunt, praying that the man didn't know where they lived.

"He isn't going to find out," a faintly familiar voice says and she loses the fight for consciousness before she's able to see who it belongs to.


	4. Three

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Thank you for the amazing follows, favourites and reviews! I love you all!**

* * *

_"Bella, I need you to wake up baby," the frantic whisper of her mother pulls a six year old Bella from sleep, barely opening her eyes before she's pulled from the bed she shared with her mother._

_"Mommy, what's wrong?" the little girl asks, seeing the tear tracks on her mother's face. Renee says nothing, tears falling silently as she carries her daughter into the closet and opening up the false wall that Bella had not known about._

_Shoving her daughter into the small space, Renee wiped the tears from her face and kissed Bella's forehead._

_"I need you to be quiet baby girl, you can't make a sound," her mother's frantic voice makes Bella nod enthusiastically, wanting to make her mother happy again._

_"I promise," the little girl says, her wide brown eyes completely serious._

_"I love you Bella," were the last words her mother said before closing the wall and leaving._

_The little girl sat in the dark, struggling to remain silent when she heard windows smashing from the front of the house. She pressed her small hands over her mouth when she heard the first of her mother's screams._

_"Where is he Renee?!" a man's voice shouted at her mother and Bella cried as her mother screamed again, refusing to talk._

_"WHERE IS HE?!"_

_"You're never going to get what you want!" she heard her mother shout before the sound of a gunshot rang out and her mother cried out in pain._

_Bella couldn't breathe as she cried, biting on her hand in determination not to scream._

Help me, help me, help me!_ She thought, scared for her mother and her._

You're going to be okay, I promise.

_She would have gasped aloud if not for her hand in her mouth. The voice that had answered her was definitely not her own, but sounded as though it belonged to a boy years older than her._

They're hurting her, you have to help us. They're going to kill my mom!

You have to be quiet. They can't find you if you be quiet.

But I have to help her!

_Her mother screamed again, but it was cut short by the sound of another gunshot._

_"Tell me where he is or you die Renee!" the man's voice cut through Bella like a knife and the tears stopped, her body going numb with the realisation that her mommy was going to die._

_"You're never going to get what you want Aro, I'll die before I let that happen!" was her mother's reply._

Don't listen to it, listen to me!

_The boy's voice was frantic now, worrying for her and Bella found comfort in the fact that she wasn't alone._

I don't want to be alone, I don't want to be alone.

You won't be, I promise, I'll stay with you.

_He kept his promise long after the shot that ended her mother's life rang out and her Aunt found her hidden in the wall two days after, dehydrated and pale with shock._

* * *

"I can't stop the bleeding!" a voice pulled Bella from unconsciousness in time for her to see three bodies standing over her Aunt, whose body was quickly losing colour as she bled from a large wound in her abdomen.

"What do we do?!" another voice asks and Bella holds her head as the loudness makes her head throb.

"I don't know but we're losing her!" the first voice says and Bella starts dragging herself across the floor, ignoring as body screamed in protest, feeling as though she'd been hit by a car.

"_Move_," she tells the bodies hovering over Maggie.

They all stop and turn to look at her but she pays them no mind, backing up fractionally as she reaches her Aunt's dying body, the woman looking frail for the first time in Bella's memory. Even after the death of her sister, Maggie never broke down, choosing instead to be the rock that her niece needed.

"No Bella!" Maggie says, her voice so faint that it barely registers.

Bella ignores her, pushing her body into a sitting position before laying her hands over the wound.

"What is she doing?!" one of the men behind her asks and another shushes them, standing back to watch the frail girl.

"You can't do this," her Aunt whispers, barely breathing.

"I won't let you die too," Bella responded, her voice hoarse as she gazed down at her Aunt who looked a lot older than her forty-five years in this moment, her pale face framed by the dark hair that looked limp for the first time in Bella's life and her pale eyes full of fear with her imminent death.

Energy crackled around the room and Bella inhaled sharply as the well of light and warmth coursed through her, filling her body from her head to her toes as she forced the energy from her fingertips into her Aunt's body. She swayed as the bleeding stopped and the skin began to heal itself and the pain in her head and body worsened, and she cried out as she began to fall onto her side, but being stopped by a pair of strong arms.

"I've got you, you're alright," a voice says and her heart clenches with realisation that she knows this voice, she knows it almost as well as her own.

_Edward._


	5. Four

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**All mistakes are my own, but if you see any please let me know! I love you all!**

* * *

It took two weeks for Bella to wake up from the sleep needed for her body to rest from the exhaustion caused by healing her Aunt, two weeks of endless dreaming about the man she had never met, the one who had broken her heart.

When she opens her eyes, the first thing she notices is that she isn't alone, her Aunt and a man with blonde hair sit in chairs in the unfamiliar room, talking quietly between them. The second thing she notices with relief, is that _he_ isn't here.

"Bella?" her Aunt asks, seeing her pushing herself into a sitting position, her arms still weak. Her Aunt looks completely healed and the relief Bella feels is almost consuming, knowing that she isn't alone, that she still has _someone_ left.

"Are you okay?" she tries to ask her Aunt, but unable to croak it out, the dryness of her throat making itself known.

"Here Isabella," the blonde man says, handing her a cup with a straw, telling her to sip slowly and the burn in her throat recedes and she looks around at the unfamiliar bedroom and wonders where she is.

"Where are we?" Bella asks her Aunt while slowly wrapping her arms around herself, realising that complete strangers have seen her at her weakest.

"We're in Forks," her Aunt says slowly, watching Bella's reaction but she just looks confused.

"Forks? What the hell is Forks?"

"You were born here, your family lived here until-"Maggie breaks off then, remembering that Bella knows nothing of the dangers her bloodline has faced.

"Why are we here? How did we _get_ here?" She asks, her confusion and anger rising.

"My sons and one of their friends managed to get to you before you were taken," the blonde man interjects and she wonders if _he_ is one of his sons.

"When are we going home?" Bella asks, almost rudely. She did not want to be here, she did not want to be anywhere near here – and him.

"Bella – we can't go home, this is our home," her Aunt says and Bella says nothing, just looking at her in disbelief.

"No."

"_Bella!_" her Aunt says pleadingly.

"_No_. I won't stay here, I can't stay here."

"Why?" both her Aunt and the man ask, confusion on both of their faces.

"Because of –"she breaks off, not saying his name.

"You're not safe away from Forks anymore. The man who killed your parents now knows that you exist," the man says, giving her information freely, so unlike her Aunt.

"My parents are dead? As in _plural_?"

"She doesn't know about Charlie?" the man's voice is borderline angry and her Aunt winces.

"I thought she would be safer not knowing!"

"Not knowing what?"

"Everything," it's barely a whisper as her Aunt admits what she's done and when the man's gaze breaks from Maggie to Bella, it softens dramatically.

"Well it looks like we have a lot to catch up on."

* * *

Hours later, Bella is in shock. The man who would introduce himself as Carlisle Cullen had told Bella everything that her Aunt had failed to tell her over the past fifteen years.

Some things she knew already, like her power and the fact that she could turn into a fire breathing dragon. Finding out the latter by herself hadn't been fun, but she'd learned to accept it with _his_ help after he told her that he could do the same thing. The look on her Aunt's face when Bella had told her she'd been shifting since she'd been ten was almost comical, the shock so strong that she doesn't move for minutes, opening her mouth to speak before closing it again.

Carlisle tells her about her family, the Swans, who with fourteen other families had founded Forks, a sanctuary for people of their kind and that when the threat of extinction hit their family, Renee and Charlie agreed that her mother would take her away after giving birth to keep the family's legacies – and Bella, safe.

"Who's trying to hurt me?" Bella asked Carlisle, after shedding tears for my mother and father who had fallen in order to keep her safe.

"James Hunter. He's one of our kind who stumbled upon our group before you were born and recognised the power your family had. None of us knew that bringing him into the fold would mean the loss of an entire family, but it did and he'd singlehandedly wiped out almost all of the Swan line, not understanding that the powers are adopted by the living members until all are dead," Carlisle explains and Bella looks down at her hands, comprehending that she holds the power of the entire Swan line, _her_ family line.

Carlisle leaves soon after, telling Bella that he'll be back to talk to her tomorrow and she smiles at him, enjoying the company of the man despite the horrific stories he told.

As she mourns for the family she never had, Maggie tells her about her mother for the first time in her life, regaling stories about her younger sister and the love her and Charlie Swan shared, their biggest regret that Bella had been unable to grow up in this house and be a family. She also admits that she's one in a generation of dragons who does not have the ability to turn but does have the magic of her family, so that she had been able to protect herself and Bella if needed.

When her stomach starts rumbling Maggie smiles at Bella and directs her to a bathroom, telling her to have a shower and then they'd go and get something to eat.

She spends a little too much time under the hot water, taking the time to wash and condition her hair before stepping out of the shower and drying the waist length mess with her powers, no longer caring about the no magic rule.

She puts on the clothes that her Aunt has left on the bed, looking at the pair of black leather gloves on top of the pile with skeptical eyes.

"Aunt Maggie?" Bella calls out and her Aunt pops her head in and Bella holds the gloves up with questioning eyes. Maggie winces visibly as she sees them and enters the room.

"Bella, our people…" she talks slowly, considering each word before it leaves her mouth and Bella frowns as she continues, "When our people turn eighteen we are each given the ability to find our other half, our soul mate. We call it an imprint. It happens when we touch them, the connection binding the two souls together and it's not something that can ever be undone. The gloves were Carlisle's idea, to stop the idiots around here from trying something," Bella swallows visibly but puts the gloves on without question, despite knowing that it didn't matter how many of the men tried to imprint on her, it wouldn't work because they weren't Edward.


	6. Five

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**All mistakes are my own, if you see any let me know. Thank you for reading!**

* * *

The magical community of Forks buzzed with news of Isabella Swan's return to the town, the long awaited return of the last Swan bringing a large sense of anticipation and excitement to those who had loved – and mourned – her family. Even the sky seemed to welcome her home, the clouds breaking apart long enough to allow sunshine to wash over the damp streets as news came of her residing in the Queen Anne home that had housed the Swan family for generations.

As Bella and her Aunt made their way from the bedroom, she became increasingly enamoured by the grace of the house that she was in, the large archways and dark wooden floors giving her a larger sense of home and belonging than any place she had ever lived in before this.

"It's a little overwhelming at first, but this," her Aunt said waving her arms as she gestured to the house, "is your birth right. The house recognises that you belong here, the magic from your ancestors will always guard you while you're in here."

Bella's gasp caught in her throat as she noticed a door slightly ajar – a door that led to the most exquisite library she'd ever seen, taking up more than one floor, books were shoved in every crevice of the room, calling to her to pick them up and get lost in the pages.

"This was your father's favourite room." Her Aunt's voice is sad and Bella's chest aches for the man who had died to protect her, the man who had loved her and her mother enough to give up his life for them.

"What was he like?" Bella asks, not really thinking about the words until they're out of her mouth.

"He was exactly like you, stubborn and quiet but he was the most caring man I'd ever met. He looked at your mother like she hung the stars even before the imprint, absolutely nobody was surprised when they ended up marked."

"Marked?" Bella asked, following her out of the library through to the large living room, completely overwhelmed that this enormous and gorgeous house was hers.

"When two people imprint, a mark appears on both of their left palms. It's gorgeous really, never quite the same pattern for any two couples, but in the eyes of the clan it is a symbol of marriage," Bella's head feels as though it's about to explode with the news of this. She felt more comfortable than ever putting the gloves on. She did not want to be bound irrevocably to the man who had abandoned her at her greatest time of need.

* * *

When they stepped into the diner in the small town less than an hour later, no one was more surprised than Bella than the sound of silence that immediately swept over the tables and booths filled with patrons. More than used to being a wallflower, she was not at all prepared for the whispering and obvious stares as she and Maggie made their way to an empty booth in the back of the room.

"I didn't think it would be like this," Bella tells her Aunt quietly, self-consciously pulling on the clothes that were a size too big for her.

"They're just curious baby, many of them loved your family very much," Maggie says with a sad smile and Bella nods her head, looking down at the wooden table carved with names and dates of people she didn't know.

"Isabella?" a lilting voice asks and Bella lifts her head to see a gorgeous and tiny woman standing by their booth with a smile on her face. Unused to the attention, Bella blinks a few times before smiling back at her.

"Just Bella," she tells the woman, her voice quiet.

"I'm Alice!" the woman's enthusiasm changes Bella's forced smile to become a genuine one as the woman slides in to the booth beside Bella and introduces herself to Maggie.

"I'm sorry about all of this," Alice's voice is a little loud as she gestures towards all of those people still staring at her, "it's a little embarrassing!"

Bella beams at Alice when the faces that had been watching her flush with shame and look away, having heard what she said and within two minutes, Bella has found a friend in Alice Whitlock.

"I'm sorry about your family," Alice says as Bella devours a monster of a hamburger a few minutes later, eating solid food for the first time in two weeks.

Bella swallows her food and frowns a little, the corners of her lips turning down and her eyes reflecting the sadness that was bubbling inside of her.

"I hate that I didn't get to meet any of them," she admits to Alice, her shoulders hunching with the shame of being unable to fully mourn her family.

"They hated it too, especially Charlie," she tells me, "He missed you a lot."

Bella and Maggie both smile gratefully at Alice and Bella's heart constricts at the thought of having a proper female friend for the first time in her life, of not being the freaky quite girl with the second-hand clothes and tiny cabin of a house.

Alice gave her hope that she would fit in here as she regaled stories about her imprint Jasper, stating that he was one of the men who had assisted in helping Bella and Maggie's safe return to Forks.

"I'd like to thank him," Bella said quietly, trying not to think about the fate that would have befallen her and her Aunt had they not be there and she frowns as she remembers that Edward was a part of that, of helping her and the thought does nothing less than piss her off as she thinks about being weak in front of him _and_ in his arms.

"You're in luck, he, Emmett and Edward are twenty-nine seconds off walking through the door," she says smiling and it's then that Bella realises that Alice has the ability of precognition and Bella's grip on her glass becomes loose as her hand starts shaking, the water sloshing with the intensity of it and she wants to do nothing but run as far away from him as she can.

She hears the door open, the bell above it signalling the entrance to her own personal hell and she takes a large mouthful of the water, swallowing it while trying to calm her frantic heartbeat. She can feel him in the room, the goose bumps on her arms rising with each step that brings the two of them closer together, the electricity in the air doing nothing to calm her down.

She can think of nothing else but the happiness that he had brought in the beginning, the sense of belonging so strong that she hadn't thought of anything other than being with him when she had put it all on the line and his rejection had been so harsh that she'd refused to reply to him when he'd tried to speak in the two years between then and now, going against her every instinct in ignoring him while he'd pleaded with her for talk to him again.

As soon as she turned, she knew even without ever having seen him before where he was. He was breath taking, his sharp jaw and heavy brows emphasising the blazing emerald eyes that had just locked gazes with her brown ones and as their eyes met, everything shifted.

There weren't words for what had happened in the seconds that their gazes had met, but Bella felt like someone had wrapped a rope around her chest and was tugging on it furiously, the throbbing unrelenting as her hand began burning, causing her to cry out and thus drop the glass of water before she pulled the glove from her hand and she saw the beautiful and intricate black mark that stood out so harshly against her pale skin, the entire world now able to see that she was bound irrevocably to Edward Cullen.


	7. Six

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**The amount of follows, favourites and reviews I got after the last chapter were overwhelming and I love you all so much.**

* * *

_She's nineteen and working the late shift at the diner per Charlotte's request. It's Bella's least favourite time to work, preferring the happy regulars from the morning shift over the greasy and sleazy men who come in late and tip atrociously, despite assaulting her with their gazes._

_Mike Newton is the reason she hates this shift though._

_One year ahead of her in school, he had made it a point to make her everyday life a living hell. Bella had not understood the definition of bullying until Mike had made her a target of it; she had been a victim of everything from locker room insults about her body to tripping her in the hallway, books and all._

_He didn't leave town after graduation like expected, despite the football scholarship, his years of poor grades had caught up with him and he hadn't gotten the GPA he'd needed to get out of this town, trapped while his friends all left. He'd chosen instead to work at his parent's outfitters store, taking out his frustration with his life on Bella at every opportunity._

_"Closing time everyone!" she called out to the three or four men still sitting in the diner at midnight, Mike Newton included._

_Much to her relief, they bustle out silently and she locks the front door, flipping off the neon signs and cleaning out the front of the store before clocking out for the night._

_She exits through the back door, saying goodnight to the cook who pulls away in his car as she makes her way to her bike, pulling her cardigan tighter around her as the hair at the nape of her neck raise._

_"You wouldn't even have a fucking car." His voice comes from behind her and she jumps, turning to see him standing three feet behind her, swaying slightly._

_"Mike? Are you okay?" the question slips out before she can think and he sneers at her, taking swig out of a flask before sauntering towards her, malice in his eyes._

_"You're such a dumb fucking cunt."_

_His closeness makes her panic and she tightens her fingers around her bag, stumbling backwards as she watches him pull a pocketknife from his jacket, flipping it open while watching the fear blossom across her face._

Edward.

_She's greeted with silence and she tries to calm her heart beat as Mike pulls her bag from her shoulder and pushes her to the ground, pinning her down with his boot._

Edward?!

_"I can't wait to see the life drain out of your big fucking eyes," Mike sneers before raising his arm and slicing open her dress and flesh._

Please Edward. Help me, please. He's going to kill me.

I can't Bella. I'm sorry, I can't.

_Edward's words hurt more than the knife that Mike drives into her flesh._

* * *

Bella gaze rips from the mark on her hand to the door and she debates pushing Alice from the booth to make a beeline to the front door and running as far away from Forks and Edward as possible.

_Don't._

His voice in her head pisses her off and she scowls at her body's response to his voice; the tightening muscles and the pool of liquid and heat in her lower body had been something that she had become a master at controlling. He had not been above whispering gorgeously dirty words into her mind as a way to trick her into responding to him when she refused to let him in.

_Fuck off._

"Bella?" Maggie's voice is full of shock and Bella looks around to find everyone's eyes darting between her and Edward with wide eyes.

"It seems that the gloves were unnecessary after all Aunt Maggie," Bella says calmly, shocking everyone around her, except for Edward whose green eyes continue to watch her intently. "Can we please go home now?"

Maggie shifts uncomfortably as she looks at the man her niece has just become irreversibly connected to. "We need to see Carlisle before we go home sweetheart. I don't think anyone expected this to happen."

Bella refuses to look at Edward as they depart, though she can feel his eyes on the back of her head as they drive to the Cullen house – to _his_ house. She watched the trees with the windows down as they drove, desperately trying to keep a hold of the calm façade that she had had back in the diner, unwilling to show him the weakness that was bubbling at the surface. She hated this. All of it. Hated that already her body was calling for him when all she wanted to do was punch him in his stupid face. She hadn't even processed the fact that she had finally seen him after all of this time. He was beautiful, she knew he would be, but it didn't stop the tidal waves of want flowing through her.

_Stop it Bella. There's no way of fighting it._ His voice is almost cocky and she hates that her entire body relaxes at his command.

_Get out of my head!_

_You can't ignore this anymore._

_You mean like you did? _The hurt in her voice is obvious and his response is silence, much to her relief. She hated that he was so quick to forget about what had happened that night two years ago, it didn't mean that she was, far from it, the scars on her thighs and hands reminding her everyday about how he had left her when she had needed him the most.

* * *

Carlisle's face reflects the shock that everyone had felt in the diner and he remains silent for a few seconds, his gaze switching from the marks on the palms of both Bella and his son.

"How did this happen?" his question is the same one running through the minds of everyone in the room, Maggie, Alice, Jasper and Edward's brother all piled in to the large and beautiful living room of the Cullen house.

"All they did was look at each other," Alice replies and everyone else nods.

"Bella?" Carlisle asks, "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" her confused face makes the older man's frown deepen as he looks at the face of the young woman, who appears a lot calmer than he would have expected in this situation.

"You seem to be taking this a lot better than any of us assumed you would."

"I knew it would happen, I figured that he would have to touch me so I was surprised about skipping that whole part but I'm not surprised that it was him."

Edward remains silent throughout this exchange, looking around the room at everything except for his father as he and Bella talk.

"That you would imprint?" Carlisle asks, his brows knotted as he looks between Bella and his son – who seems to be avoiding his gaze.

Bella shakes her head. "That it would be him."

_Shut up Bella, just shut up._

"Did you know Edward before the day they saved you?" Carlisle's gaze is trained on the face of his eldest son, who is looking at Bella with a ticking jaw and he realises that they're talking telepathically between them, an ability that appears between about thirty percent of imprint couples and from the fire in his Edward's eyes, Bella is obviously refusing to listen to what he is telling her.

_Don't you dare fucking tell him._

"I've known Edward since the day that my mother was killed."


	8. Seven

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Your response to this story overwhelming and I am so incredibly grateful to all of you for it. This is shorter than my average chapter because I had to split it up so there'll be an update very soon!**

* * *

"I need to talk to my son. Alone." Carlisle's tone is warning and Bella's chest gets heavier with each step that pulls her further away from Edward and when she starts rubbing the spot to eradicate the ache, Carlisle tells her to stay.

"I'm sorry Bella, I didn't really think about it hurting the both of you," he apologises as she makes her way over to his son, standing close enough to relieve some of the pressure despite the almost carnal need to touch him, to feel their skin pressed together and she hated the thought of giving in to him.

"Jesus Christ, stop being so fucking stubborn Bella," Edward says before grabbing ahold of her hand and threading his fingers through hers, his calloused palm resting against her soft one.

The relief is immediate and the pain in her chest is all but eliminated, making way for the desire that has returned tenfold, the throbbing heat in her lower body almost becoming painful.

She can hear everything now, all of his thoughts and while they had been louder after they'd initially imprinted, they were now crystal clear; He was furious at her for telling his father what she had and even angrier that she felt no remorse. She smiled internally.

_You won't be smiling when I take you over my knee for it later._

Her body shivered in response - and not because she was cold. The intensity of her imprint forcing her body to forget every barrier she had carefully built in the past two years.

_You'll have to forgive me eventually. This feeling isn't going to go away. Ever._

She thought about it again, the way he had abandoned her as Mike Newton drove his knife into her flesh, the shattering of her heart more painful than her bleeding wounds.

Edward drops her hand then and falls to his knees, his face crippling as he relives the night through Bella's memories and her face turns white with the realisation that despite the years of blocking her recollections of that night, everything has unravelled so quickly.

"I need to go."

She wastes no time, running through the house until she's found a door that leads into a large backyard that kisses the edge of the lush forrest. Perfect.

Shifting, she takes flight, using the canopy of the trees to hide as she flies away from Edward and Forks and everything that she used to want.

She ignores the pain radiating in her chest with the distance and Edward's pleading with her to stop but she doesn't until hours later, when exhaustion forces her to shift back and fall asleep on the forrest floor.

She dreams of green eyes and calloused hands.

* * *

There had been few times in his life that Edward Cullen had every truly known what it was like to be scared, to experience such terrifying fear that it had made his heart pound so fiercely that he worried it was about to break a rib. It had become a point of pride that he'd always been able to maintain a calm facade, to handle every situation without becoming compromised by emotions.

And Bella Swan had fucked it all up within a day of being home.

She hated him. Two years of silence from her mind had given him enough to know but he hadn't been prepared for the fierceness of her anger and his gift of empathy had almost made him cringe from it.

He thought he would actually die from the pain of seeing the memories that she had so effectively hidden from him the night that everything blew up. He hadn't known and he hadn't been there and he had never hated himself as much as he did right now, knowing that she had nearly died and he had ignored her pleas to help her.

He'd ruined the lives of two Swans that night and she would hate him infinitely more when she found out that he had been the reason her father had been killed.

He'd waited his entire life for Bella Swan and he would never have the love he had before, the pure un-imprinted love she had given him so freely.

She had taken off minutes before him, but she had been fast and in any other situation, the chase would have turned him on but the fear of James Hunter finding her before he did was greater than anything he'd ever known.

She was his and he wasn't going to lose her again.

* * *

"Jesus Christ Bella," she heard him whisper through her chattering teeth. The cold had woken her hours ago, but both she and the dragon had been too thoroughly frozen to move by that point and she'd curled into a foetal position to try to keep the cold away - to no avail.

"Come on baby, I've got you," his voice was soft, softer than she'd heard it in a while and as his body heat warmed her and he whispered sweetly into her ear, she remembered how easy it had been to love Edward Cullen.


	9. Eight

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**All mistakes are my own.**

**Thank you all for the amazing responses of reviews, favourites and follows, I am so very very grateful for each of you. A big thank you to ADF for recommending this fic, the feedback has been enormous!**

* * *

When Bella woke again, her body was surrounded by delicious warmth but her lids were heavy with sleep, protesting as she opened her eyes, her pupils dilating dramatically as she spotted the roaring flames in the stone fireplace in what appeared to be a very dingy little cabin.

She was also wrapped in the arms of Edward, who slept behind her with deep and even breaths that sounded like a lullaby as she fought to keep her eyes open, wanting to move away from him but unwilling to be cold again.

She felt his warm breath on the back of her neck, each exhale raising the small hairs in that area as she fought her body's reaction to his proximity. Two years ago she used to dream about being able to be this close to him, to have his arms around her as they slept peacefully, but two years ago she had been in love with him.

_"__Bella." _

Her name fell from his lips and the reverence in his tone caused a tear to fall from the side of her face, disappearing into her hair as she struggled to keep a hold of herself. She couldn't read his mind while he slept and for that she was infinitely grateful, knowing that hearing his thoughts while they were unguarded would either bring her more pain; and she was so tired of the ever-present ache in her chest or his thoughts would reveal feelings that she had once held and that terrified her deeply.

Unwilling to allow herself to fall down that rabbit-hole again, she let herself give in to unconsciousness.

* * *

"No! Don't!"

Bella woke to find herself on the cold wooden floor, no longer in Edwards arms as he lay a few feet from her, asleep on his back, covered with sweat and obviously in the throes of having a nightmare.

"Get off of him, _please!_"

She'd never heard this tone before, raw and desperate, he was pleading with someone unknown with such passion and fear that it tug at her heart strings.

"Edward." Her whisper of his name goes unnoticed as his body shakes, sweat dripping from his forehead. She moves closer, hesitant in knowing never to touch someone having a violent nightmare, something her aunt had learned after trying to pull Bella from one of her own.

_"__Edward!" _

He rouses then, his breathing uneven as he wakes from whatever hell he had been experiencing and she clenches her fists to resist reaching for him, her fingernails biting half-crescents into her palms.

"Bella." He says her name like a prayer and then she's in his arms, his frantic heartbeat thudding furiously against her ribs as he breathes her in, stroking her hair as he comes down from his nightmare.

They say nothing and much to both of their surprise, she doesn't pull away. Edward feels a small victory at this, that she may not be hugging him back, but that she was letting him hold her and he had waited so fucking long to hold her. He hated that she had so much reason to doubt that his affection for her was real, he knew that she feared that it was caused by the imprint.

They lay in silence for minutes, neither one of them saying anything as she scours his thoughts but comes away without the knowledge of what she had been looking for. "What were you dreaming about?"

He stiffens immediately and she feels the exact moment that he shuts down, effectively blocking her from his thoughts and putting the mask back in place.

"What are you talking about?"

His tone pisses her off and she pulls away from him, both of them sitting up. "Are you kidding me Edward? You're still covered in sweat and I woke up feet from you." He ignores her, shrugging as he stands up, looking everywhere but at her and she isn't sure if she wants to cry or scream at him.

"I don't know what you're on about."

"Fuck you." Her voice is a low hiss and if it weren't for the malice in her voice, Edward would have been turned on by the normally sweet and shy Bella Swan swearing at him

Hearing his thought, she becomes furious at both him and her body's reaction to the thought. The arousal comes swift and she inhales unevenly, desperately wanting to turn it off. She hated being so hopelessly aware of him, of his body

"Stop fighting this, Bella." His voice is low as he walks slowly but determinedly toward her, and she steps backward with each stride towards her. Too soon though, her back has hit the log wall of the cabin and he hovers over her, his emerald eyes dark as he rakes his gaze over her face. Nobody had ever looked at her the way that he had.

"Give in to it Bella, give in to me." His voice is like a caress, washing over her like velvet as he places a hand beside her head on the wall and the other on her hip, touching her with a purpose that no other had ever dared.

Her body throbbed for him and his thoughts fed her arousal as he pictured in his head all that he would do to her, the places he would tease and the skin he would kiss and lick and bite until she was screaming his name at the top of her lungs.

Her breath became increasingly uneven as his thoughts invaded her mind as her body struggled to not give in to him, the imprint making it almost impossible.

It was his last thought that made her freeze though, an image of him holding her from behind, one of her breasts in his hand as his other wandering from her ribs and slowly making its way to that spot that they both knew he would touch until she was coming apart beneath his steady hand.

_"__No." _

The terror in her voice makes him stop and she struggles to keep her thoughts to herself, to hide from him that that picture would never become reality because she didn't look that way and that he would be disgusted by the scars that marred her skin, the scars that caused an ugliness that she loathed.

He stepped back from her then and she felt him in her mind looking for answers that she wouldn't give, his eyes boring into hers as they fought an endless battle of wills.

"If you won't tell me anything, don't think that I'll give it up so easy." Her angry tone made him frown and he stepped back from her, running his fingers through his hair and making it even more unruly than usual.

"Then I guess we're at an impasse."

They flew back to Forks in silence, ignoring one another as they each thought about their individual demons; hers the hurt and abandonment that she feared she would never be free from, and his the secrets that he had hidden so well for so long, the secrets that would ruin any chance of Bella _ever_ forgiving him.

* * *

**I am not a big fan of long author's notes but I have benefited as a reader greatly from fic recommendations from author's in the past so if you are interested in what I do love reading, check out my favourites on my profile!**


	10. Nine

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**This chapter is a bit of a filler but I needed a little more development before diving any deeper. Thank you for your continued support!**

* * *

Esme Cullen paced through her living room, wearing the carpet down with each pass as she wrung her hands, wondering what the hell had happened in the past day and where the hell her eldest son was. She'd always been a patient woman, it was a necessary skill in raising two boys and she had been good at it and her sons, despite their quirks, were both admired strongly throughout their clan.

"You're giving me a headache with your pacing Ma." Emmett sat on the couch, Rosalie's hand in his and a troubled look on his face, a rare time in which his dimples weren't flashing with laughter.

"Sorry." She stopped pacing then, falling into her favourite chair and running her fingers through her caramel hair with unconcealed frustration as she struggled to contain the worry for Edward and Bella, his imprint and her new daughter.

God, she thought, the poor girl must have been so confused and frightened. Although she agreed and assisted in Renee's relocation to a safer place, away from the threat of James Hunter, she was furious with Maggie for hiding so much about their people from Bella. The danger that girl could have been in if some of the less savoury men in their clan had been the ones to imprint on the girl and not her son!

"Did you know?" The question comes out of Esme's mouth before she can stop herself and the frown on Emmett's face deepens, making him look a lot older than twenty-four.

"He told me once that he knew who his imprint was, and that he was waiting but he never told me it was _her_." Rosalie kisses his cheek then, lifting his hand to her protruding stomach where their unborn child slept as a way to lift Emmett's spirits, she knew without being told that he was upset by his brother's lack of confidence in him.

"I'm sorry Emmett." They all turn at the same time at the sound of Edward's voice in the door way. The relief at seeing him eases the tension from the shoulders of Rosalie and Emmett as they glance curiously at the small but stunning young woman standing beside him.

"Edward Anthony Cullen!" He visibly at the sound of his mother's furious voice, as does Emmett, knowing exactly what that tone means. "Never have I ever worried so much! How could you put your mother through something like that?! I didn't know if you were dead or alive!"

"I'm sorry Ma." His low and deeply apologetic voice causing Esme to sigh, releasing her anger before making her way across the room to hold her son.

"Never do that to me again."

"It was my fault." Bella says quietly, guilt flooding her as she thinks about the danger that she had out both herself and Edward in by leaving the safety of Forks.

"Oh sweetheart." Esme's voice is soft as she leaves the arms of her son, and looks over at the sad face of her new daughter, whose downcast eyes make the elder woman throw her arms around her. "Despite my best efforts, my son doesn't always think before he acts, but don't worry; I'll sort him out."

* * *

Bella was in love with Esme Cullen. The woman was everything Bella had remembered her own mother being; strong and compassionate and utterly stunning. From the woman's hug to her words, it was clear that she didn't see Bella as anything but family and her heart tugs at the thought of belonging to a family, a proper family.

She liked Emmett too, his huge frame infinitely less intimidating with the large dimples and smiling eyes. He made her feel comfortable right away, making jokes about Edward's less than stellar social skills and apologising on his behalf dramatically, making Edward groan and Bella snort.

She also found that she really liked Rosalie, the gorgeous woman had intimidated her at first, until she opened her mouth and swore like a sailor, before informing Bella that her demon spawn was having a kick boxing lesson inside of her and she laughed with the woman, feeling completely at ease as Rosalie pulled Bella's hand towards the area of her stomach where her son was kicking her persistently.

* * *

Edward watched Bella marvel over the life of his unborn nephew with a frown on his face and an ache in his heart.

In a world in which James Hunter had never existed, he might have had a chance to have the kind of love that Rosalie and Emmett shared. He would not have fucked up so spectacularly that Bella hated him so passionately.

"She's extraordinary Edward." He hadn't heard his mother approach, too engrossed in seeing Bella smile for the first time in his life. He'd wondered his entire life about the way she'd look, from the colour of her eyes to the shape of her mouth and he had almost been rendered speechless when he saw her; she was perfect.

_Stop it Edward._

A frown replaces the smile and he feels remorse immediately, hating that he was the reason that it was gone but feeling no shame for thinking about what he had. There was no denying the physical attraction that he held towards her.

_I can't._

"I knew she would be." He replies to his mother, smiling sadly.

"It's going to be fine, I just know it." The belief in his words fills him with hope.

"I hope you're right, I really really do." He says, smiling at his mother and her sheer optimism.

_God, he's beautiful. _

He knows that she doesn't mean for him to hear it, but when he does, he smiles even wider.

* * *

Bella refuses to admit it, but it's that smile she thinks about before she falls asleep, dreaming about strong arms wrapped around her.


	11. Ten

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**The feedback that I've received lately has just been so amazing that I felt you all deserved an early update!**

**Reviews are love!**

* * *

Edward awoke in the dark room with pain radiating through his chest and the sound of Bella's pleading through his head.

_Please don't hurt me!_

He wasted no time pulling on the pair of shorts that he'd dropped next to the bed when he'd stripped the night before and running down the hall into his bedroom where his mother had told Bella to sleep.

Yanking the door open, his knees nearly cripple at the sight of her in the throes of a nightmare so reminiscent of his own. She looked so small, lying there with tears running from the corners of her eyes and down into her hairline, disappearing among the mahogany mess as her small hands clutched the sheets so hard that her knuckles where white.

He made his way to the bed in minimal strides before straddling his imprint and restraining her hands against the bed, knowing that waking someone up from a nightmare like this can be violent.

"Bella." She roused slightly, but not enough to wake her as she continued to silently sob.

_"__Bella!" _He echoed her name with his mind and it works – her eyelids opening to reveal bloodshot eyes and he lets her hands go as she clutches at the places where he hurt her, feeling for open wounds.

"You're okay baby, you're awake now. I'm with you." His voice is low and gentle as he pulls his body away from her so that he can lift her into his arms where she cries silently, her thoughts a jumbled mess as she comes down from the memories.

"Thirteen…" Her whisper is broken by the sound of a sob escaping as she finally decides to speak, but choosing to remain in my arms as I struggle to relive her memories.

"What?"

"He stabbed me thirteen times before I started healing and my dragon broke through and hurt him. I had to heal him, I couldn't let him die. I cried and cried while I healed the man who wanted to kill me, who had tried to kill me." She pulls away from him hallway through her recount and watches his face as her words sink in, the devastation and remorse setting so deep in his eyes that she'd forced to look away from him.

"I couldn't help you." His words are soft and quiet, an admission that neither of them expect.

"Why?"

He says nothing, but moves silently across the bed, reaching to turn on the lamp on the bedside table and then she sees them.

The scars, unlike hers, are long and she knows right away that they weren't caused by a knife like hers had been, because she'd seen similar wounds on Mike Newton after her dragon had cut him open. It took her weeks to recover from healing that amount of blood loss.

_Edward._

Her voice is shock and anguish and he looks away from her, unable to meet her gaze as the realisation dawns on her that he didn't abandon her on purpose.

They of them say nothing for a long time as Bella's thoughts race through both of their minds and the guilt she feels tears him apart because she doesn't know everything – doesn't know what had happened that night.

When he makes his way over to his bedroom door to leave back down to the hall, she surprises them both by whispering softly. "Stay."

* * *

Bella wakes to a delicious warmth, the kind that she and her dragon both revel in but can rarely achieve, despite the electric blanket.

Edward, she remembers as his scent engulfs her, his face buried in her hair making her neck tickle with each exhale.

They didn't fall asleep like this, she notes as she remains in his embrace, his arms firmly around her middle. It'd been awkward when he'd climbed into bed, laying side by side with enough space to fit another person between them until exhaustion had claimed her, pulling her into a deep and – thankfully – dreamless sleep.

She still didn't know how to process the information he had given her, the memory of seeing his scars in the dim lamp light playing over and over in her mind before they slept and she didn't know how to move on from it – all of the feelings that had been ruling her life for the past two years.

_"__Bella."_ Her name is a low groan in the back of his throat as it falls from his lips, the air against her neck suddenly hotter than it had been seconds before followed by a hardening against her behind.

"Oh…" her voice is barely a whisper as arousal smashes through her, the wetness pooling so quickly between her legs that she struggles to comprehend what is happening as she wiggles against his erection.

Searching for friction, she can't help but press her legs together, so unused to feeling this way in someone's presence. Edward's low and erotic words whispered to her in the dead of night over the past two years had lit a fire in her – but it was nothing compared to the inferno that she was feeling right now.

"Edward." Her voice is not something she recognises, the throaty and husky tones not her own as she tries to wake him without moving.

He remains asleep as he pushes his erection against her ass, eliciting a low moan from them both as she feels it elsewhere, as though the stroke had been against there, followed by a whisper of her name as he does it again and again. With each stroke of his hips, she feels as though she's going to fall apart, the pressure building so intensely that she knows something amazing is coming.

Edward wakes up again – mid thrust against her and he stops what he's doing. "Shit!"

She whimpers as he pulls away, her body shaking with need as he rolls onto his back.

"Bella, _fuck_ I'm so sor-"

She rolls over to find him on his back, his gaze full of remorse and shame as he looks at her, the expression changing right away when he sees the lust in her eyes. _"Please Edward."_

"Fuck it." He says and then she's pinned under him, his erection pressing against her wetness and they both groan at the feeling. His arms are on either side of her head as he presses against her, again and again as her fingers run down his back, urging him on as they both get closer.

She falls apart seconds before he does, his name falling from her mouth as her body shakes with the force of it before he too is shuddering above her, the both of them clutching each other tightly as they come down from their high.

"What the fuck just happened?"


	12. Eleven

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Just a quick AN to let everyone know that I'm back at uni so my posting schedule is roughly two chapters a week at this stage, but I will keep you updated if this changes. As always, thank you for your feedback!**

* * *

After leaving Edward's bed with a stuttered and very excuse, Bella spent the rest of the day avoiding both him and his thoughts, choosing instead to spend time with Maggie and Esme; who had been close friends with both her mother and father.

She tried not to think about what Edward had told her as they both came down from their individual highs, but failed.

_"__The imprint won't be complete until it's been consummated."_

How could she just have sex with him after all of this time? She'd spent the past two years hating him, choosing emotional exile over the only friend she'd ever had and those feelings wouldn't go away overnight - even despite the dry humping.

Her attraction to him made it even worse, knowing that he was hers and hers alone. She wished that she were the girl that still believed in the story book happily ever after she thought that they would have when they finally met.

She listened as Esme spoke about Charlie Swan, the man who had led their clan before James too, had ended his life and the love that he and Renee had shared and the sacrifice that they had made – for her.

She felt closer to the both of them than she had in years as she listened to the stories that both Esme and Maggie recalled from their youth, he heart aching as she thought about what might have been if James Hunter hadn't destroyed everyone who could have ever loved her.

"I wish I could have known him." Bella says quietly, thinking about her father, wondering if he was the kind of man who was a hugger, or if he liked to fish or the kind of cologne he wore.

"I'm sure Edward could tell you all about him if you'd ask."

"Why would Edward know?"

"Your father and Edward were extremely close, he was grooming Edward to take over the clan when he was ready."

_What?_

"Edward and my father were close?" I say the words slowly, the anger building steadily but furiously as my mind explodes with the knowledge. How could he have done that? How could he have been close with my father and never have told me about it?

_Bella_.

His voice pisses me off more than I ever thought necessary and I ignore him, seething as I wonder about all of the other things that Edward might not have told me.

"Didn't he ever tell you?" Esme looks shocked, her eyes wide as the realisation sets in that her son has once again kept a secret that he shouldn't have.

"No. No he didn't."

"Edward Anthony Masen Cullen!" Esme's shriek makes both Bella and Maggie jump as the whole demeanor of the woman changes with her yell.

He enters the room seconds later, the mask of indifference that was his usual expression shifting to one of remorse and fear as he spies the furious expressions on both Bella's and his mother's faces.

"Mom, I can explain-"

"You had years to explain!" Bella's voice cuts through his sentence as she rises out of her chair, her eyes wide with hurt and fury. "He was my father Edward, my _father_ and you didn't think that it was necessary to let me know that you knew him? I was alone! I had no one except my Aunt, I had to live among people who hated me! Who tried to kill me and you were here doing what? Being the son he never had? Well what about the daughter he did have? What about me?!"

"I was coming to get you!" His shout takes her by surprise and she inhales sharply, her chest rising and falling rapidly as his words sink in. "I felt it that morning, that something was going to happen and I got in my car to go and get you, when Charlie found out, he followed me."

She sees it then, all of it in her mind. Charlie chasing Edward in his car and making him explain, the fear on her father's face when he realises that something is going to happen and – James Hunter.

"He came after me and James killed him, the scars on my chest are from that day. It's my fault your father is dead."

_"__What?"_

"Charlie wasn't supposed to leave Forks, it was too dangerous having him out in the open, his powers were too strong – too easy to track outside of the town and he found us."

The anguish on his face makes the tears fall faster, making her wonder for a second about when she had actually started crying as he recounts being ambushed by James Hunter and his men, and the short fight that ended with her father dead and Edward gravely injured. She could feel the guilt in both his words and his mind as he spoke, each word piercing her through the heart. He had loved Charlie Swan.

She sobs when he gets down on his knees before her, resting his head against her knees as he begs telepathically for her forgiveness, for _anything_ from her. _I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry_. He repeats the words over and over as the material on her pants becomes damp with his tears.

_Edward._

_Please don't hate me, I don't want you to hate me anymore._

_Edward, look at me._

He looks up and she gasps as his eyes meet hers, his emerald irises standing out starkly against the red and she lowers herself to his level, taking his face into her hands.

_I don't blame you. I wouldn't ever blame you for trying to save me. He was my father and he knew what he was doing, he just wanted to help._

"It was not your fault." She says aloud, her voice cracking with almost every word as they leave her lips. She leans her forehead against his, her thumbs running gently across his jawline, repeating the sentence over and over in her mind for him to hear as she surrendered herself forgiveness.


	13. Twelve

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I am beyond elated at reaching 200 reviews! Thank you so much! **

* * *

_"__She's in Forks."_

_The gypsy woman's pale gaze stared into nothingness as James paced backwards and forwards, angry that the stupid little bitch had evaded him, angry that he hadn't killed the Cullen idiot when he'd had the chance._

_"__I know she's in Forks!" He hissed, pupils flashing from human to dragon and back again as his rage flamed._

_The idiot he had sent had returned empty handed and near death. It had been a joy ending his life for failing._

_She should be dead._

_Fuck Charlie Swan and his dumb fucking wife for hiding a child. _

_"__I can't touch her while she's there."_

_"__You can't, but you know of another who can." The malice in the woman's voice betrays the calm on her face as she rakes her sharp nails over the candid picture of Isabella Swan._

* * *

"Come on Bella, wake up!"

She sits up in the bed, panting as she wakes up from her dream.

Edward is crouching on the floor beside the bed, his hand cupping her clammy cheeks as her eyes adjust to the darkness. He's shirtless, his eyes still full of sleep and in any other situation, she might have been gawking at how perfect he looked, even barely awake and wide eyed with concern.

"He knows I'm here in Forks." She pants, her feared gaze meeting his worried one as his eyes rake her face.

"He isn't going to stop, not until I'm dead. He's _never_ going to stop." A sob catches in her throat as she speaks, the taste of fear lingering on her tongue.

"I'm not going to let that happen." She feels the determination in his voice, the conviction and his touch soothing her as he strokes his fingers across her cheek. "You're safe here. You're safe with me."

"Edward?"

"What is it?"

"Can you stay with me?"

In this moment, there was nothing else but them and the bond, the confessions of yesterday forgotten as he moved into the bed beside her, pulling her into the comfort of his arms, where she fit perfectly.

"What was my Dad like?" She asked a few minutes later, her voice barely a whisper in the darkness as she struggled to put the fear of her dream behind her.

"Charlie Swan was the most stubborn man I have ever met…"

She fell asleep to the sounds of Edward telling her about the father she wish she'd been able to know.

* * *

"You don't have to do this, you know." Edward said as Bella waited for Alice to arrive to help her get ready for their blessing ceremony; a tradition in the clan for their union to be blessed by each of the families.

She looked nervous as she stood in the kitchen, watching through the window as Esme direct her Aunt and people from Edward's family as they set up decorations for the event in the backyard of the Swan house.

"I already feel like enough of an outsider, I have to do this." She replied, her voice full of determination as she turned her face to smile at him. Pride welled within him in response at her bravery.

Without thinking about his actions, he stepped behind her, his front to her back as he wrapped his arms around her. She sank into him as their skin met, the imprint calmed; only ever seeming satisfied when they were touching.

"Will it always be like this?" She whispered the question and her mind battled with fear and apprehension at both of the possible answers.

"Yes." He replied, running his fingertips along her arms, leaving goose bumps in their wake.

Neither of them moved until they were forced apart to get ready for the party.

* * *

Bella was sure she was in hell.

The midnight blue dress that Alice had bought over for her to wear was without a doubt very beautiful but it was also the most revealing thing she had ever worn, with a sweetheart neckline and hem that fell a few inches above her knee, showing more skin than she was comfortable with.

People wouldn't stop gawking at her and in response she pulled the hem of the dress down, feeling extremely self-conscious as they stared at her wide-eyed.

"Trust me sweetie, the dress is fine." A child-like voice said from beside her and Bella turned to see a very beautiful woman standing next to her, her red hair tied back into a pony tail as she held out a drink of champagne for her. "I'm Tory, by the way and it isn't the dress they're gaping at like a bunch of idiots."

"Then why_ are_ they staring at me?" Bella asked, sounding more like a child than the young woman she was.

"Because you're beautiful." A man's voice replied and her eyes widened as she took in the tall and tanned skin of the man who the voice belonged to.

"Jacob Black." He said, smiling wide and flashing his too-white teeth at her as he held out his hand.

"Bella Dw- er -Swan." She took it and they shook, his hand lingering a little too long before letting her go. It felt wrong, she thought, the touch of anyone but Edward and the gaze of Jacob Black made her very uncomfortable.

"Jacob Black, you know better!" Tory hissed, fire in her eyes at Jacob's flirtatious attitude. He smirked in response and opened his mouth to continue talking to Bella.

"I'd walk away if I was you, idiot." Emmett Cullen said from behind Tory, glaring at Jacob with enough force to put fear into the eyes of the only person dumb enough to try to flirt with a newly imprinted woman.

Bella turned towards Emmett as soon as Jacob walked away, and Emmett's gaze went from menacing to gentle as soon as he saw the worry in the eyes of his new little sister. "Let's not tell my brother about this."

She hadn't seen Edward yet, but the gentle humming of her skin and the small ache in her chest informed her that he wasn't far. She was extremely proud of how far they'd come the past two days, being happy to finally start letting go of all of the hate that she'd bottled for two years.

Bella nodded enthusiastically, not wanting to do anything to jeopardize how far they'd come. She took a moment to look around the yard lit by candles and lanterns that hung from the trees and the tables for food and drinks with lace table cloths that added an elegance that Esme assured her was necessary for this evening. It was breathtaking. Esme had done a wonderful job transforming the yard that had yesterday been overgrown and wild into the refined beauty it was now.

When she finally spotted him standing by the table of food, dressed simply in a white button down and slacks, the ache eased slightly and she took a moment to admire him as he smiled, he was a gorgeous man, she thought with a smile on her face.

The smile dropped when she saw the stunning blonde woman he was smiling at, her hand resting on his arm as she laughed at something he said, the familiarity between the two of them making Bella's stomach churn as she turned to Emmett.

"It doesn't look like your brother is really going to care about what just happened. I'm going to the bathroom." She muttered, walking away from Edward and the party feeling like an idiot for thinking for a second that Edward Cullen would ever be satisfied with someone as plain as her.


	14. Thirteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**As always, thank you so much for all of your feedback.**

* * *

Bella knew she was overreacting as she sat with her back to the locked bathroom door. She'd never thought about it before though – Edward being with anyone else. She hated how naive she had been, thinking that he would have waited for her like she had for him. She was twenty-one and she'd never even been _kissed_ for crying out loud.

How could she have thought that he hadn't ever been with another girl?

She was an idiot. There was no way that he could be that gorgeous and not get the attention from other girls in the town.

She stood from her spot and walked over to the sink, inhaling deeply before staring at her reflection. She knew she wasn't ugly and the makeup that Alice had painted on her brought out a subtle beauty that was not normally there, that she had hoped Edward would have liked – but he hadn't spared a glance her way the entire evening.

_Stupid girl_, she thought, wiping away a tear.

* * *

Edward knew the exact moment that Bella had left the party.

He'd felt the tug of the imprint in his chest and had looked up to see her back slumped as she walked towards the back door.

He also saw the pissed off glare that Emmett gave him before shaking his head and walking over to his wife.

_Fuck_, he thought, _I am an idiot_.

He stepped back from Tanya, her hand dropping from his arm and noticing the change in his demeanor, she stopped speaking.

"Are you okay?" she asked, leaning in towards him with concern in her voice, before following his gaze to see Bella entering the house. Her face flashed with pleasure briefly – but not before Edward could miss it.

She'd done this on purpose, he realised.

"Leave."

"Edward-" She started, hearing the anger in his voice as she felt him enter her mind, seeing everything – the jealousy, the malice. She'd wanted it to be _her_ that he'd imprint on, _her_ that would lead the clan with him, not the little Swan girl.

"If you do not leave right now, I will throw you out." His voice was deadly calm as he stared at her, his eyes full of the fury that did not show on the rest of his face as he pulled himself from her mind, the taste of disgust lingering on his tongue.

Her eyes filled with unconcealed anger as she stormed away, eyes following her with judging eyes. It wasn't unusual for there to be some drama after an imprint, particularly jealous men and women.

As soon as she was out of his sight he was walking after Bella, entering her mind as he made his way through the crowd and house looking for her.

I'm an idiot, he thought as Bella's insecurities and fears filled him.

_Bella? _

_Go away Edward. Please._

Her voice was pleading and he closed his eyes tight as he stood outside of the bathroom door.

_Please open the door._

_No._

He ran his hands through his hair with frustration. Only Bella Swan had ever frustrated him this much. _Why not?_

_Because I don't want to hear it. The excuses, the 'she meant nothing to me'._

"Open the fucking door Bella." His voice was low and full of the anger he'd held towards Tanya for doing this to him, for sending him and Bella five steps back in the progress that they'd made.

He heard the lock click and he looked down the dark corridor as she appeared from behind the door that he pinned her against as soon as it was closed.

"What the fuck Edward?" she gasped as their bodies met, the lust of yesterday coming back more forcefully than it had before.

"The first time I kissed a girl, I was fourteen and it was after you shifted the first time? Do you remember that? How you were crying and begging me to help you and I couldn't do anything? But I calmed you down and you told me you loved me and it was one of the worst days of my life, you were ten and I was fourteen and I thought I was disgusting for being so caught up in you so when Jessica expressed interest, I was determined to feel normal again, so I kissed her."

Bella could see it all playing throughout Edward's head as he spoke, the kiss with the pretty girl and the crying that had followed with the self-loathing that had lasted weeks.

He showed her everything in his life that had followed, the drunken kisses shared with girls in their clan, the memories soaked in remorse and regret as he finally allowed her to see all of the ugliness that he'd always refused to share with her, that he didn't want her to see because he didn't want her to hate him.

When she saw the memories of him losing his virginity to the blonde he'd been talking to outside, tears fell freely down her face as she tried to pull herself from his mind.

"Don't." He told her as he trapped her into his mind, forcing her to watch a slightly younger Edward close his eyes and look away as the girl moved above him, before the memory flashed to him vomiting violently afterwards as his body rejected him being with a girl who wasn't Bella, even without the mark it was her, it was always her.

"Edward…" her voice was barely a whisper as they opened their eyes, locking tear-filled gazes in the dark hallway.

"It was you Bella, it was _always_ you." He said, wiping the tears from beneath her eyes before trying to back away from her, only to be stopped by her hands twisting in his shirt as she pulls his mouth down to hers.

Their first kiss isn't how either of them imagine it. Unlike the slow and gentle dance that they had both thought it would be, it's hard. Their mouths clash violently, bruising lips as they both struggle to convey their thoughts into the kiss, all of the anger and the guilt and the confusion melting away as their passion transforms into long and slow kisses. They pull away only when they're breathless, gasping for breath as they clutch at one another, refusing to let go.

"I'm sorry." He says, his eyes full of a shame that makes her want to cry again.

"You're mine." She says in reply, her voice full of a fierce possession that he understood all too well.

"I'm yours." He says, his face sinking into her neck as the last of his guilt turns into relief in her embrace, completely lost for words at how _right_ he feels for the first time in his life.


	15. Fourteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**All mistakes are my own.**

**I aim to have another update tomorrow but it may be the day after. Reviews are love!**

* * *

They returned to the party with swollen lips and impish smiles, making their way from family to family as they received the blessings from the members of their clan eager to leave good impressions upon their future leader and the last Swan.

By the time they'd made it just over halfway through the ceremony, Bella thought she was about to explode. The only things worse than the looks of pity she had received from almost every member of the clan for the loss of her family were the snide comments given by women clearly jilted by the fact that she had imprinted with Edward Cullen, which given her current emotional state, did nothing to relieve the tension flooding throughout her veins.

Watching everything unfold in Edward's mind had nearly sent her sinking to her knees. Feeling his self-hatred as he struggled with both his feelings for her and the expectation of both the clan and society had crushed her. She could do nothing but forgive him, the irreversibility of their imprint giving her little choice in the matter; she would not live her life with someone she hated, although they both knew her insecurities would linger for an untold amount of time.

She'd lost all coherent thought when his lips had touched hers, his pleasure echoing hers until they pulled away with bruised lips and matching smiles, saying nothing until the sounds from outside had beckoned them to re-join the party in their honour.

"Only a few more to go." Edward said from beside her, squeezing her hand and offering a smile that enticed one of hers in return.

"My feet hurt." She admitted. Although standing for hours on end while she waitressed had been her job for so long, she was unfamiliar with the sandals Alice had given her and could feel the blisters rising where the straps caused uncomfortable friction against her skin.

"I'll give you a foot rub later." He promised, his thoughts as serious as his words and she smiled wider despite herself.

They were intercepted then by the patriarchs of another clan family and the smile Edward had pulled from her worked wonders as she tried her best to make a good impression, using all of the social skills her old job had called for while Edward charmed them with a natural charisma that almost pissed her off because of how well it worked.

"I'm still mad at you." She admitted after they had walked away, both with smiles on their faces and Bella felt a small accomplishment at that, that she hadn't completely failed her duty to both Edward and her family.

"I know." He said with a sad smile, before kissing her forehead gently. He would spend the rest of his life making it up to her.

* * *

As Bella and Edward met with each of the families in the clan, laughing and smiling politely as they received their blessings, they were unaware of the eyes following their every move with carefully concealed malice.

The little bitch was the last obstacle in their plan to steal the legacies of the Swan family and like every other member of the pathetic blood line, she too would fall as the rest of them had.

Edward Cullen posed a threat however, as the prodigy of Charlie Swan he would not let the girl go without a fight and not for the first time, they wish James had just killed him when he'd killed the old man and despite the fact that they wanted to share in the powers of the Swan's, they did not want to see more blood than was necessary spilled.

James had asked for all of the information about the little bitch, wanting to know how to destroy her and as they watched Bella smile at Edward like he was the sun and the stars, they knew how exactly it could be done.

It would just take a little patience, which happened to be something they had in abundance.

* * *

"You were amazing tonight." Edward said as he and Bella collapsed on the couch after saying goodbye to the last of their guests. They would pack up the backyard tomorrow, his parents had said after seeing the shadows under the eyes of both of them, the bursts of emotion earlier in the evening finally taking their toll on their bodies.

"I've never smiled so much in my life." She groaned, rubbing at her jaw while pushing her shoes off and lifting her legs into his lap.

"They were very taken with you."

"Are you sure? It wasn't just out of pity for the orphan Swan?"

"I promise, they all liked you. Except maybe Jessica." He paused thoughtfully. "And Lauren and maybe Irina."

She smiled at that, remembering their faces from Edward's memories as they had met, knowing instantly about the jealousy from behind their cool demeanor. "Good."

He chuckled at that, enjoying the confidence in her face and her mind as she closed her eyes, reliving each moment of the evening, determined to remember every name that she could as he started rubbing her aching feet.

"_Ummm._" She moaned quietly as he worked his fingers over the throbbing muscles. "That feels so good."

"Shit." He says, letting her foot go and standing up abruptly. She opens her eyes to see him standing near her, his hand running through his hair and a small smile of embarrassment across his lips. Her face flames as her body reacts to his thoughts, the tug of the imprint amplifying those feelings dangerously and she smiled, knowing that she had aroused him, not anyone else, but _her_.

"You _really_ can't smile at me like that Bella." He says, his voice low as it wraps around her, filling her with deeper desire for him than ever before.

"Why not?" She asks, stretching out along the couch, watching as his gaze becomes even darker as he stares at the bare skin of her thighs as her dress hitches up, her skin begging for his touch.

"Oh baby, you really don't want to know."


	16. Fifteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**I think a lot of you were waiting for this chapter, an insight into the elusive Edward.**

**Enjoy my loves! Let me know what you think!**

* * *

Rejecting Bella after the way that she'd displayed her desire so blatantly had been one of the hardest things that Edward had ever done and hours after she'd fallen asleep in the bedroom beside him, he was still wide awake.

He hadn't deserved her forgiveness at all. Hadn't expected it. He'd expected the rage she'd harbored against him for the past two years, the fierceness she had displayed just a few days ago but the imprint had slowly taken it away.

How much more would it take?

Were her feelings even her own?

The questions plagued his mind as he stared at the ceiling, guilt, regret and confusion pouring through him as he fought insomnia.

Giving away his virginity in a drunken haze had been his biggest failure after his role in the death of Charlie Swan and he had retreated into himself for months after, disgusted with himself for letting someone else take what should have been Bella's, what he had _known_ had been hers.

Even without being properly imprinted, his body had rejected the union with Tanya and he hadn't even been able to do anything but lie under her as she moved above him, eyes closed shut while he pictured the face of a girl he'd never seen, a girl that he'd abandoned when she'd needed him, a girl who hated him.

The joining of his and Tanya's bodies had barely lasted two minutes before he'd shoved her off of him and proceeded to vomit spectacularly into the bin beside the bed - and it hadn't been from the alcohol. For days afterward he had been able to keep little but water in his stomach, showering multiple times each day and never quite feeling clean of Tanya's touch. He'd also been an idiot to stay friends with her afterward, knowing that she still wanted him

How could Bella want him after what he'd done? After the way he had betrayed her so carelessly while she had been in an exile he knew she hated.

He'd heard her thoughts as she'd stretched before him on the sofa in the living room - the pleasure in arousing him. As if there had been doubt that she did, he struggled constantly with his want for her, the overwhelming need whispering _take her, take her, take her_ into his mind and he almost had.

Forcing himself to look away from her body, he'd told her no and when he'd looked back a minute later, she had sat up and pulled her dress down. "Thank you." She'd told him with a smile, because despite the instinct telling her to give in to him, she was not ready. She'd kissed his cheek and left the room, leaving him to his thoughts.

They had days before the lust would take over and there would be no resisting the pull of the imprint. He'd seen the way his brother had fought it for Rosalie, until he had been weak and ill until she had given herself to him, choosing his needs over her own because that was what imprints did for one another.

* * *

Edward hadn't slept a wink.

He'd lain awake until the sun had started to rise and had moved from the bedroom into the backyard where he started to clean up from the party the night before, thankful for the break from the endless tirade of questions circling his mind.

He was pulling paper lanterns from trees when his father had arrived, dressed down in an old t-shirt and jeans and had started helping his son without a word, noting but not commenting on the shadows under his eyes or the disarray that was his hair after pulling his hands through it a hundred times throughout the evening.

The worked silently for a few minutes while Edward collected his thoughts, trying to articulate the turmoil bubbling beneath the surface.

"Dad?" He asked finally, turning to his father and putting down the last of the lanterns.

"Yes?"

"The imprint...can it _force _a person to love someone else, even if they don't want to?"

Carlisle's eyes were careful as they watched his son's face and he took a few moments to think about how best to answer his son.

"Yes." He answered finally, wishing it was something different as he watched his son's face fall with grief. "The imprint pulls two people together, you can't _not_ love your imprint, you've seen it before with Sam and Emily and Leah but the imprint cannot make you fall _in love_ with someone; that is entirely dependent on the people themselves. Some imprints have lived their entire lives being nothing but friends."

"So it takes away your free will?"

"Only in the way that it joins you and another person. Son, what is this about?" Carlisle watched Edward with sad eyes as his son stood hunched with misery before him, wanting nothing but to take away the pain in those green eyes.

"Just a few days ago Bella _hated_ me and tonight she forgave me for something I didn't deserve. And I don't know if it's because of her or the imprint. I don't know if what she's feeling for me if real or not."

"You're an idiot if you think that that girl's feelings for you aren't real, big brother." Emmett had entered the backyard seconds into their conversation and wanted nothing more than to punch his moody brother in the face. "You didn't see her face when she saw you with Tanya last night. She looked like someone had sucker-punched her."

Edward saw it in his brother's mind, the look of utter devastation on Bella's face wiping away the serene smile that had been there seconds earlier as she spotted Tanya touching her imprint.

"I'm an idiot." Edward groaned, running his hands through his hair for the umpteenth time, wondering if he would ever get it right for her.

"I think we can forgive you for it." But would Bella?


	17. Sixteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Hopefully there will be an another update tomorrow but if not, the day after for sure.**

**Reviews are the best kind of motivation!**

* * *

When Bella wakes and stumbles from her bedroom to the kitchen in search of the ambrosia that is caffeine, she's greeted by the sight of Esme and Maggie standing at the kitchen sink, looking out at the backyard.

"Good morning." Bella says in the midst of a yawn and the two women turn to face her with matching smiles that border creepsville.

"Good morning sweetie," her Aunt says with a sly smile and Bella frowns as she downs the coffee, craning her head to see what was out of the window but failing.

"What's with the matching smiles and what is so interesting outside?" she enquires, pouring herself another cup and grabbing a warm muffin from the basket on the counter.

"Today is a very special day sweetheart." Esme says with a large smile, her green eyes shining as brightly as Edward's and Bella finds herself lost in them for a moment, reaching for him with her mind and feeling the warmth spread through her body as he whispers _good morning beautiful_ to her.

"I thought yesterday was a very special day?" she quips back, thinking about the blisters that had healed over night from the shoes she'd had to wear the night before.

Her Aunt grins at her, looking much younger than she had a month ago. Being home agreed with her, it seemed. "Tonight is your first time at a council gathering, and as the last of your bloodline, you are the only one who can take your family's place at the table." She could feel the pride dripping from her Aunt's tone and apprehension filled her. She didn't know anything about politics, let alone clan politics.

_That's what I'm for, love._

Her heart clenches at the use of his endearment and his support. They'd come a long way in the past few days and she was grateful for that – and him.

_Thank you._

"Are you here to help me with it?" she asks with a hopeful smile at her Aunt and semi-mother-in-law but they shake their heads with matching smiles.

"No, we're here to take you shopping."

* * *

Bella complained to Edward the entire time she was out with his mother and her Aunt. He'd like to say it didn't amuse him, but he had spent the entire morning with a permanent smile plastered on his face while he listened to her rant about how unnecessary more than two pair of blue jeans were.

Until today, he hadn't known about her aversion to shopping and learning something new about her had opened his eyes and excited him because there was so much _more_ to her now. She was no longer just the voice belonging to the girl - she _was_ the girl.

He knew what she looked like when she smiled and when she cried.

Hell, he _knew_ what she looked like.

But he mostly enjoyed the fact that there would be so much more about her to learn, like if she snorted when she laughed and if he could find constellations in the smattering of freckles on her shoulder.

The possibilities left him feeling exhilarated because there was so much about _him_ that she didn't know yet.

Good things.

And he would have their entire lives to make her see that she was someone he could love.

* * *

"I can't believe you didn't save me from the wrath of those two." Are the first words Bella says when she and Edward are alone again, safe from the opinionated shopaholics that he let steal her away for all of the morning and part of the afternoon.

He'd watched on with amusement as the women had made several trips from the car to bring in the bags that held more items of clothing than Bella could ever wear. He'd received several glares for his amused smiles.

Pulling her into his embrace, he relished in the fact that she sank into him, her arms winding around his waist as he held her against him, breathing in her scent.

"Traitor," she murmured but made no effort to move away from him, holding him tighter as his chuckles vibrated through each of them, and she almost whimpered as her body responded.

He let her go straight away, moving away to put a few feet between them as they stared at one another for a long moment, the room becoming hot as they fought their carnal urges.

"I swear I'm about to explode. My skin literally hums when you're near me and I have to touch you but when I do…" she trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence because he felt it too, the electricity between them. It was both heaven and hell.

"We'll figure it out." He says, rubbing his chest in the exact same spot that hers ached whenever they weren't touching. "There has to be a way."

* * *

She thought about the hopelessness in his eyes as he had left the room after their hug, knowing how badly he'd wanted to leap across the room and pull her back into his embrace but wanting to respect her at the same time.

It seemed like a never-ending battle.

She'd thought about it the night before after she'd gone to her room; having sex with him. With _Edward_. Her relief at his denial to take her had been short lived when she'd realised that if he had given in, she would have given him her virginity without a thought. The thought hadn't been the one to shake her though - she'd accepted the fact that it would be Edward or no one when she'd first learned about the physical act as a teen. No, the thought that terrified her was the one that she realised that she wouldn't have even known what to do. Apart from the knowledge of the physical basics of sex, she had no experience with anything else and she realised that she wouldn't be able to satisfy him.

_Stop it Bella._

His demand didn't deter her though and she groaned aloud as she finished putting her hair into a long braid. She didn't even know how to give him a blow job for fuck sake.

_I swear to whatever god that exists that if you don't stop thinking about this I'm going to kick in the door Isabella._

Shaking her head in frustration, she stares at her reflection in the mirror, finding nothing in her plain-Jane reflection that was enticing or exotic, just pale skin and eyes almost a little too large for her small face.

She looks away with a frown and opens the bathroom door, only to have herself pinned against the wall opposite it a second later by the length of Edward's body and she struggles to hold in a moan at the feel of his hard, muscled body against her small and soft one. His eyes are darker than she's ever seen as she looks into them, dazzled once again by how beautiful he was.

He pulls away a second later, grabbing her hand and pulling it down to where he was hard and aching. She gasped with surprise at his arousal.

"This is because of _you_." he says, running her hand along the length of his very prominent erection, trying not to moan at the feel of her hand touching him through barrier of his pants. "Don't _ever_ think that you aren't enough for me."

He pulls away and is walking away from her before she can form a coherent thought.


	18. Seventeen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Will be another post in the next few days but while you're waiting, check out my new fic Stealing Bella.**

* * *

Edward paced a hole in the carpet while Bella sat quietly on the couch, staring at her hands instead of at her emotionally distraught imprint.

"Edward, it's fine," she mumbled, watching as he stopped and pulled his hands through his hair for the fiftieth time since he'd driven them back to the Swan house – her house.

"Someone tried to poison you Bella, it is certainly not fucking _fine_." He hissed back, his pupils shifting from human to dragon and back again as he struggled to contain the emotional volcano he was experiencing, the empathy in her flinched as his fury rose. He saw it.

He stopped his pacing and moved to kneel at her feet, placing his head on the top of her thighs while her hands reached to stroke through his hair, an effort to calm him down without using her powers. That would just piss him off more.

"You're right and I'm sorry but someone tried to take you away from me tonight," he looked up at her then, her fingers falling from his hair to his cheeks, "And I only just got you back."

Her eyes welled as he looked at her and she ran her thumbs along the shadows under his eyes that told her that he hadn't slept the night before. "Let's go to bed."

She let her hands fall from his face to stand up, and grabbed his hand while they made their way to the bedroom where they fell asleep still fully dressed and with their arms wrapped around one another.

* * *

The clan buzzed with the news of the attempted murder of Isabella Swan as they swarmed around the council hall. Those who had been at the council meeting the night before relayed stories about how the Swan girl had been about to take a sip of water when Alice Whitlock and Sue and Leah Clearwater had shouted to put the drink down.

It seemed everyone in the clan had another theory about what had happened.

"I heard that the council thinks Jacob Black did it because he spent the entire meeting making reasons for why she shouldn't have a seat on the council." One teenager said to her group of friends as they waited for the doors to open.

"Apparently Edward did it to break the imprint because he wants to be with Tanya Denali." Her friend replied.

"She probably did it for attention." Another said snidely.

"I think you little bitches should shut your ugly mouths." A voice said from behind them and they all looked on with shock as Leah Clearwater glared at them, her dark eyes alight with annoyance as she stared seemingly straight through them.

The girls blushed with embarrassment as they met the gaze of the young woman notorious for her bad temper before scuttling away. She heard the words _ice queen_ muttered as they scurried off to find another spot to stand.

Leah sighed, it was nothing she hadn't heard before but it didn't stop the frown on her face from deepening. Two years had done nothing to ease the pain caused by Sam's imprint. And the anger that had become her constant companion had only grown in strength after the death of Charlie Swan, the closest thing she had ever had to a father.

Despite the fact that she didn't know the girl, Leah had been relieved that she, her mother and Alice had been able to stop Bella Swan from drinking the poison in time. Charlie had died trying to save his daughter and she would not let some coward cause his sacrifice to have been in vain.

When she found them, there would be hell to pay.

* * *

Bella and Esme watched from the kitchen window as Carlisle and Edward shouted at one another in the backyard of the Swan house. The meeting had done nothing to inspire an investigation as to whom might have poisoned Bella's drink the night before.

The elders on the council refused to entertain the thought that one or more of the clan members was conspiring with James Hunter to murder her, despite the evidence of her dreams.

"They'll come around." Esme had said with a sympathetic smile after the elders had treated her as though she were a child rather than the woman containing entire blood line of legacies.

Edward, on the other hand, was fuming.

"How could they talk to her like that?!" he hissed after they'd gotten into the car with Carlisle and Esme after the meeting. "After everything the Charlie did for them, how could they just treat his legacy like nothing?"

"Edward, it's alright. I can't just expect everyone to like me right away." She had said to try to calm him down before having to result to using her gift on him.

"I know that, but they can't just dismiss you like they did. They know how much of a threat James Hunter is and they're treating it like it's nothing. The town's defences won't hold forever if he has people working on the inside."

"Edward to council can't just launch an investigation without suspects." Carlisle had said.

That had been two hours ago.

Esme turned away from the window with a motherly sigh and sipped on the tea that had gotten cold since she and Bella had started watching the shouting match between her husband and son.

"How much longer do you think they'll be going at it for?" Bella asked while frowning, the empath in her minutes away from dispelling the argument herself.

"Two minutes." Esme said, pushing a stray hair away from her face. "They're too alike that something like this has happened at least twice a year since Edward was fifteen."

She was right.

* * *

"You were so angry today." Bella whispered as she and Edward lounged on the sofa in the living room, ignoring the pull of the imprint to pull each other's clothes off. "You scared me." She admitted.

His hand paused the caress up her arm and he frowned, pulling away slightly to watch the frown on her lips. "I'm sorry." He said, his voice full of shame and apology. "Just with everything that's happened this week, I've been a bit on edge."

"What do you usually do to cool off then?" she asked, her brown eyes large with curiosity.

He smiled then, his teeth flashing as he thought about his favourite past time. _So beautiful_, Bella thought as she watched his joy, making him grin wider.

"I fly."


	19. Eighteen

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**A few people have mentioned the missing council meeting and in all honesty, there was supposed to be one but I had the worst writers block and it just wouldn't come out, but it might sometime soon so keep an eye out.**

* * *

As they together soared over the forest sounding Forks, racing over the river of green, Bella felt the freedom that she had been dreaming about her entire life.

She'd never been able to fly like this before, and for the only time since she'd first shifted, her dragon felt at peace as they glided together.

Bella's heart clenched happily as she heard his laugh echo in both of their minds. As each flap of their wings put miles between them and Forks, the weight on their chests lifted as the expectations of the clan fell away.

They flew for an hour, the longest she'd ever been able to go before without making her Aunt worry and as they landed in a small opening in the trees.

As she shifted back, Bella took in the most beautiful place she'd ever seen. Completely round, the small meadow was filled with wildflowers that swayed slightly in the small breeze – a sea of purples and yellows and whites. The sun shone for the first time since she'd arrived in Forks, filling the small space with warm, yellow light. She walked slowly, completely awestruck by the perfection around her as long grass tickled her fingertips.

"How did you find this place?" she asked without turning, the awareness of his body behind hers making her skin hum.

He was thinking about how real she was.

Her skin flamed.

"I was patrolling, just after your father died and I spotted it through the trees. I spend most of my free time here." He said, walking forward and lessening the space between them.

"Alone?" she asks, her breath hitching in her throat as he brushes her hair from her shoulder to lay a gentle peck on the bare skin where her shoulder meets her neck.

"Not anymore." He says, nipping at her skin lightly with his teeth.

She turns then, pulling him down into the grass before straddling him confidently. Here, without the worry in his mind and eyes, she can see him.

Pinning his hands above his head, her hair falls around them both, a soft curtain between them and everything else. "Tell me something." She demands.

"I wrote a song for you when I was seventeen on my piano, it was horrible." He says, his cheeks flaming as he stares up at her, watching the corners of her mouth as she smiles widely. "Tell me something."

"The first thing I ever learned how to cook was lasagne."

He smiles then. "That's my favourite."

"When you first told me I demanded that Maggie teach me how to cook it." Her cheeks redden with her confession and she moves from above him to stretch out on the grass with her head on his chest. "Tell me something else."

They talk for hours in the sunlight, his fingers running through her hair and her hand over his heart as they get to know one another again.

She admits to him how she wants to be a teacher, to fulfil the dream her mother had before her death and about the few teachers who had been the closest thing she'd had to friends while in school.

He tells her that he recently finished med-school and that he planned on joining his father at the Forks General while leading the clan.

"What are you going to do about the elder council members?" she asked and he grimaced, thinking about the fiends who had tried to pull Bella apart during their unnecessary inquisition both at the meeting and today's fiasco.

"The laws of the clan haven't been changed in over two centuries, but I'm planning on making a motion that states that no one can have a seat for more than twenty years. Including me."

"Why?" she asks, a small cross forming between her brows as she looks up at him.

"It's too easy for people to become corrupt and after the way that the elders treated you last night," he shook his head in anger, "I don't want anyone else to be submitted to that. They treated you like a criminal."

"It wasn't so bad." She says, surprising him.

"Why not?" he asks as she grins mischievously, her beauty taking the breath out of him.

"Karen Stanley has quite the fantasy of you in a lab coat."

* * *

"I want you, sweet girl." He says, pressing open-mouthed kisses to her bare torso. She moans as he nips at her skin and soothes the sting with a stroke of his tongue.

"Then have me." She replies, one hand gripping the sheet beside her while she buries the other in his hair as he swipes his tongue over her hipbone.

"Soon." He promises while continuing his sweet torture of her erogenous zones. Kissing her hipbone again, he looks up. "I'm going to tattoo my name write here, Beautiful."

"Whatever you want. Just _please_ touch me, it almost hurts." She whimpers as his hands skim the soft cotton of her plain white underwear.

"Where do you want me to touch you?" his fingers stroke over the wet patch on her panties and she gasps at the contact. "Here, baby girl? Do you want me to touch you here?"

"_Please_."

He doesn't say a word as he pulls the cotton from her hips, tugging it down until she can kick the fabric off with her feet. He whispers praises to an unknown god as he takes her in with awe and she feels completely unembarrassed when she moans loudly at the first stroke up his fingertips.

"You're so wet for me baby girl, so wet." He groans as he licks her arousal from his fingertips, savouring her as though she were ambrosia.

She whimpers his name as he moves up her body to claim her mouth with his, the tang of her still on his tongue as he sweeps it across her lips while aligning their bodies.

"Do you want this?" he asks, pulling back to look into her eyes.

"I want you." she says, her tone as certain as her eyes. She did, she wanted him, all of him. God, she loved him so much.

"I love you, Bella." He whispers and then, ever so slowly, he moves his body to push into hers.

Bella awakes with a gasp, her skin flushed and her heartbeat accelerated as she takes in the bedroom around her.

_A dream_, she realises, her heart sinking. _It was just a dream._

A tear rolls down her cheek and she wipes it away with a frown. Why was she so upset, she wondered. And then thinking about the last moments of her dream, understanding sets in.

_I didn't want it to be a dream, _she thinks_. I wanted it to be real._

Getting out of the bed and making her way across the hall to the room he was sleeping in, she decided it would be.


End file.
